TAXI bosses have spoken of their shock and anger after a violent mob attack on their Royton office.

Around 20 taxis were damaged and a driver injured when up to 50 youths pelted parked hire cars at Borough Taxis, on Spring Garden Street, with bricks, concrete slabs and sticks.

Many cars were forced off the road after windows were smashed and doors and panels were damaged after the incident shortly before 10pm last Friday.

Eyewitness Fazal Rahim, a director of Borough Taxis, said: "Spring Garden Street looked like a battle zone with so much debris on the street of bricks, concrete slabs etc.

"Ninety-nine per cent of the people in Royton are law abiding and decent people.

"Our drivers, who get on well with people and have been doing this job for years, have told me this was an organised attack and could be linked with trouble we had in December.

"This is not only an issue for taxi drivers or the police force but also responsibility for people in the town who must stand up against this menace."

Manager John Crook agreed that this appeared to be an on-going problem and cited a similar incident on Boxing Day where one of the other drivers was badly injured.

He added: "Our drivers are professional and as their office manager I am proud of the restraint they exercised despite being under sustained attacks by these hooligans.

"It's a miracle that a member of the public was not seriously injured." A further incident is also believed to have taken place on Sunday.

Mr Rahim said the attack on Friday lasted about 20 minutes, and many of the gang hung around even after the arrival of two police officers.

He claims the police were powerless to make arrests despite many of the drivers recognising the offenders but drivers and members of the public were advised to avoid the taxi rank as their safety could not be guaranteed.

Fellow director Maqbool Ahmed, added: "We would like to apologise to our customers and the people who were using the rank at the time.

"We could not give them a level of service on Friday night as we could not guarantee their safety or the safety of our drivers. Urgent action needs to be taken before someone is seriously injured."

Concerns about the high number of racial incidents and assaults on taxi drivers were raised at last week's Shaw and Royton area committee meeting by township inspector Fiona Butt.

Area Inspector Fiona Butt said: "This kind of incident is completely unacceptable and we will do everything in our power to catch those responsible.

"I was at a meeting on Tuesday involving police, partner agencies and the borough taxi directors in which we discussed ways of helping to support the taxi drivers to prevent this kind of thing from happening again in the future.

"Several measures will be put in place, including the installation of CCTV overlooking the taxi rank and extra patrols in the area.

"Meanwhile, I want to reassure people that a full investigation will take place to find the people responsible for what happened on Friday night and bring them to justice."